A Family Affair
by An-Jelly-Ca
Summary: Known prodigies are disappearing. Don is designated lead agent when the next disappearance is in L.A. The Hardys soon become involved when their agency is called in to consult. Hardy Boys/Numb3rs crossover. R&R. Chapter 16 Up! genius!Frank
1. Chapter 1

**A/N This is a rewrite based on the same premise as my earlier story Jeopardy, which has been delighted. This takes place somewhere around late season two/early season three of the series. It is a crossover with the Hardy Boys. Charlie and Don are cousins to Frank and Joe. Their mother is the sister of Frank and Joe's father and Aunt Gertrude. For this story Charlie and Don retain their normal ages, but Frank and Joe are aged twenty-four and twenty-three respectivley.**

**I am going to try to update this approximately once per week. The first five chapters are completed so far.**

**Thanks to all reviewers (in advance)!!!**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the chracters described herein.**

"Come on, Charlie; be reasonable for once in your life." Don pleaded with his younger brother. He loathed dealing with Charlie when he got it into his head to be difficult, which he had seemingly decided to do in this case.

"I'm not being difficult; I think you're making to big a deal out of this."

"Normally, I'd be inclined with you on this, but something just feels off to me." Don explained, frowning at the mathematician.

"Don, just because a couple of smart individuals have gone missing is no reason to assume that I am going to be a target. First of all, you don't even know if these cases are connected, one occurred in Minnesota, one in Illinois, one in New Hampshire, another was in Montana, and now you're saying someone just went missing right here in L.A.. It's hardly enough to start freaking out over." Charlie said in his usual analytical matter.

"Charlie, these people were more than just 'smart,' every single one of them had either a genius IQ or was considered a prodigy in some field. The first woman to go missing in Minnesota was an artistic prodigy she had work published in galleries internationally by the time she was seven, the second to go missing was a man who is considered a linguistic prodigy he was fluent in ten different languages by the age of eleven, the third was also a man, a chess prodigy, the forth was a woman and a technological prodigy, she's been writing computer code since she was six, and this fifth case involves a woman who was a musical prodigy. Don paused for a few moments to allow this information to sink in. "Do you still think these are coincidences?"

"I'd have to examine the data to be sure, there are factors to consider such as how close together the abductions occurred, and so on."

"The bureau thinks they're connected." Don said flatly. "Wright put my team on the case, and called in Megan to start pulling together a psych profile assuming that the cases are connected. We're still examining all angles of course, but the cases are beginning to look more and more connected." He considered his brother's features and fought back a scowl as he noticed the stubborn look that Charlie usually got when he was going to do whatever he wanted in spite of what Don told him to.

"Even if they are it doesn't mean that they're going to come after me." Charlie retorted crossing his arms across his chest and staring his brother down. Don knew from prior experience that the best way to get through to his brother was to present him with the most data possible in order to convince him from a logical standpoint.

"Megan thinks whoever's doing this might be a collector. If you haven't noticed he's kidnapped a different type of genius each time. Also, in case you weren't listening when I recited that list for you, a mathematical prodigy has yet to go missing, which means…"

"Don't even go there, Don." Charlie said with a frown. "Look, I really have to be getting back to Cal Sci, I have papers to grade, and I promised my students I'd have their exams done for tomorrow, so if that's all…"

"Charlie…"

"I'll see you later, Don." Charlie said getting up from his seat in the conference room that he and Don had been talking in at the L.A. FBI office. "And, for the love of God tell me that you haven't been worrying Uncle Fenton over this…?" He added as he paused just in front of the door. "You haven't have you?" He demanded when no answer was forthcoming. "You _have_." He accused.

"I wouldn't call it _worried_, precisely." Don weaseled.

"What did you do, Don? Frank's not going to appreciate this you know." Charlie demanded. He was close to his Bayport cousins despite seldom seeing them in the past few years (although, they had gone to New York for Frank's wedding earlier this year). Frank and he kept up a weekly intercourse with each other as they were what you could call kindred spirits both dealing with high expectations of success due to their status as geniuses.

"Well, no literary prodigies have gone missing either…and Frank is already extraordinarily prone to being kidnapped as it is." Don exclaimed justifying his actions. It was a standing joke within the family that Don could fill up his whole caseload just searching for Frank and Joe after they got kidnapped due to their involvement on a case.

Their cousin Frank Hardy began reading full length books at the age of three, and had an extraordinary memory, he could recall everything he had ever read and had extraordinary research capabilities. He had only skipped one grade, however, as his parents elected to just hire tutors for him to supplement his education, and since he was only slightly above average in his other subjects his teachers simply allowed him to have English and History with the students several grades above him, by the time he entered second grade he was studying with the seven graders. Once Frank was a freshman in high school he began taking some of his classes at the local community college while he took science and math at his high school. He and Charlie used to joke that if they combined their abilities they'd be able to take over the world. Frank was now twenty-four and possessed two PhD's one in Literature, and the second in Law. He and his younger brother Joe worked for his father's private investigative agency.

"Yes, but what exactly did you say to Uncle Fenton?" Charlie demanded.

"I just told him about the disappearances, and it turned out he already knows about them, he's been hired as a consultant by the New Hampshire FBI offices." Don replied. "So, really I didn't do anything."

"Am I to assume that you didn't inform Joe of these happenings either?" Charlie asked knowingly. Hardy and Sons Detective Agency had become an enormous operation over the past several years, it now employed twenty or so detectives and as a result Fenton, who usually worked with Sam Radley, often researched cases of which his sons were uninformed. Joe and Frank were enormously protective of each other; (similar to Charlie and Don's relationship) as a result Charlie was sure that any hint of a threat to Frank would cause Joe to behave, well, in a manner very similar to Don's current one.

"I may have ah, informed Joe of the disappearances, but any conclusions he drew were entirely his own." Don hedged.

"I am an adult, Don, in case you didn't realize, as is Frank. We're both perfectly capable of making decisions for ourselves in case you weren't aware." Charlie exclaimed before storming out the door slamming the door to the room shut behind him. Don exited the conference room a couple of moments after him just in time to see the elevator doors shut on his brother. He noticed his team staring at him, and he promptly glared at them until they all quickly looked down at their paperwork pretending as though they hadn't been spying on him moments before.

Some days it really sucked being an older brother.

**A/N Review. For all my Hardy Boys fans, the next chapter will feature Frank and Joe, so don't worry. ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N New chapter, woot! and then I am going to bed because I am so tired. LOL. :D Frank and Joe in this chapter.**

**Thanks to my reviewer!!!**

**Dedication:SupernaturalfreakisSG-1fan20 for her review. :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

On the other end of the country, Joe Hardy was experiencing similar feelings to those of his eldest cousin, although he was convinced that being the younger brother sucked just as much as being the elder one.

"You_ know_." Joe accused his older brother. Frank, who was reading from a large tome that looked extremely tedious (at least as far as Joe was concerned)didn't even bother to look up.

"I know a lot of things, Joe; you'll need to be more specific." Frank replied turning the page in his book (The complete works of Aristotle).

"You know about the disappearances." Joe replied. "You know that geniuses are going missing all over the _freaking_ country and you're sitting here calmly reading about who knows what."

"I'm reading the Nicomachean Ethics at the moment." Frank replied completely ignoring his younger brother's earlier comment.

"You're entirely missing the point, Frank." Joe said sounding frustrated.

"I'm not missing anything; I'm choosing to ignore you." Frank said mildly.

"_Frank_." Joe exclaimed in the whiny, little brother tone that he had perfected years ago.

"_Joe_." Frank teased, finally looking up from his book to meet his brother's concerned eyes with his own warm, brown ones. "Yes, I know about the disappearances. You forget that I compile the reports for the agency of what each partnership is currently working on, and that includes Dad's files." Frank explained.

"And you're not worried?" Joe demanded. "Not at all?"

"I'm not sure there is anything to be worried about yet." Frank replied. "Besides, when have you ever known me to be rash?"

Joe had to concede that point in his brother's favor, Frank never did anything without considering the consequences of it. "But, Don said…"

"Don said?" Frank questioned.

"Did I say Don? I meant, uh, Dan, the uh, newscaster on channel eleven, he was saying-" Joe said hurrying to cover up the reference to the conversation he'd had with their cousin last night. Frank, Joe knew, would not appreciate being an object of discussion between them, even if they were only worried about him.

"Save it." Frank commanded. "I know you talked to Don about me."

"How…" Joe started before a look of realization dawned on his face. "You spoke to Charlie didn't you?" He asked.

"He called me not a half an hour before you stormed in here." Frank confirmed.

"I take it he wasn't pleased with Don?" Joe asked with a grin. He and Charlie had often lamented the over-protectiveness of their elder brothers together.

"To say the least." Frank answered dryly. "Charlie and I both think that you two are jumping to conclusions, yes it's a tad odd that so many intelligent individuals have disappeared recently, but that does not mean that either Charlie or my self are going to be targets. And, I'm hardly going to consent to staying locked in the house until all the disappearances are solved." Frank continued sighing as he noted the concerned look on his younger brother's face. "I know you're worried, Joe, but right now there's no reason to think I'm going to be a target…"

"I have a bad feeling about this whole situation, Frank." Joe said, chewing on his thumb nail, a habit which their parents and Aunt Gertrude had never managed to break him of. Joe was well known for his use of intuition to solve cases, and Frank rarely disregarded his judgments as Joe often turned out to be correct.

"I'll be careful, okay?" Frank promised.

"If that's the best I'm going to get from you…" Joe said with a sigh.

"It is. At least for now." His older brother affirmed.

"Fine." Joe said after a pause. "Anyway, I had another reason for barging into your office, believe it or not. Dad said he wants to meet with us in his office to discuss something."

"When did he tell you that?" Frank asked.

"Eh, like an hour ago." Joe replied. "He said I should go find you, and as he didn't tell me a specific time, it can't be that crucial." Frank snorted at that statement. His younger brother was notorious for his tardiness.

"Let's go, shall we?" Frank said leading the way out of his office and down the hallway to their father's office. He knocked on the door and waited for his father to answer before entering.

Fenton ushered his sons inside and gestured for them to sit down in the two chairs positioned in front of his desk. "I'm assuming you both already know about the recent rash of disappearances?" He asked. "Don't look so surprised," He added, when they both seemed shocked that he knew of their knowledge. "I know you two will inevitably find out about anything no matter if I try to keep it from your or not. Anyway, you probably also know that the New Hampshire office has brought me in to help on their missing person case." He waited for their nods of confirmation before continuing. "The FBI has decided to treat these cases as connected, as the similar M.O. of the disappearances, and the nature of the victims seems to indicate that they are. Therefore, the teams in charge of the case at each office are going to be meeting at the L.A. office, as the last disappearance took place there, in order to compile evidence and do further digging. As our agency is consulting on this we will be going with the representatives of the New Hampshire office."

"What do you mean, we?" Frank asked picking up on the term immediately.

"As in me, you, and your brother." Fenton replied. "I have gotten permission to bring you two in on the case as well, the bureau feels that your research capabilities could be especially useful on this case, and since Don and Charlie are your cousins they feel that you two will work well with them."

"When do we leave?" Joe questioned.

"Tomorrow. That being said the two of you may want to go home and pack, the FBI is flying us out there with the other agents in a government plane, I'll pick you both up tomorrow and we can head over there together." Fenton explained. "Oh, and Frank?"

"Yeah, dad?" Frank asked.

"Tell Callie I'm sorry for taking you away so soon after the wedding."

Frank and his longtime girlfriend, Callie Shaw, had gotten married just two months earlier, and while she was of course used to him going away often on business, he had not had to leave for any lengthy amount of time since their recent marriage.

"I will, but she and Vanessa were planning to take a long weekend off work and go to a spa, so hopefully she won't miss me much." Frank replied, before waving goodbye to his father and following his brother to the door.

**A/N Review, please. More Charlie and Don in the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Sorry, about the lack of update last week, I had to spend my time studying final exams which were this week. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!!!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

"Something the matter with you, Charlie?" Alan Eppes asked observing his youngest son pick at his dinner and pointedly ignore his eldest one.

"No." Charlie replied flatly.

"He's upset with me." Don answered levelly while Charlie glared at him.

"I gathered." Alan replied glancing between the two of them with interest wondering what had gotten Charlie annoyed with his brother. "Any particular reason?" He asked mildly taking a bite of the lasagna they were eating for dinner.

"He's mad because I think that he might be a possible target for this guy who is targeting prodigies in different fields." Don explained.

"No, I'm mad because you're acting like I'm ten years old and can't take care of myself." Charlie answered back. "Besides you have absolutely no proof that this involves me in any way."

"And you don't have any evidence that you're not a target." Don countered.

"That's not my burden to prove." Charlie replied immediately. "If you want me to sit at home all day with the doors locked then you're going to need to prove that there is substantial evidence pointing in that direction, I'm not going to accept a 'hunch' as a viable conclusion."

"What exactly is going on here?" Alan asked warily cutting into their bickering, sometimes it seemed like they were in high school again.

"I already told you," Don replied. "We've had five prodigies each from a different field disappear from around the country, no one knows what happened to them, the bureau suspects the cases are connected, and we have no solid leads so far. I'm concerned that Charlie could be a target for obvious reasons."

"I think I heard something about that, didn't a woman disappear a short while ago from L.A.?" Alan asked a look of recognition dawning on his face.

"Last week," Don confirmed.

"Charlie, maybe you should trust your brother on this." Alan suggested his eyebrows drawing together in concern.

"Look, Dad, Don, I appreciate the concern really, I do. But I have classes to teach and research to do, there's no way I am going to put all that on hold for anything less than solid evidentiary proof. I'll be careful, I swear." Charlie replied.

"How about you let me drive you to work for awhile, buddy?" Don asked. "Everyone who went missing was alone at the time, and I really don't want to give this guy an opportunity."

Charlie rolled his eyes but acquiesced to his brother's demand.

"Now that we've got that settled, I've got something to tell the two of you." Don continued.

"What's this about, son?" Alan asked as he reached for his glass.

"The bureau has decided it's about time the different offices pooled their evidence on these cases, therefore the teams from each office that are currently working on the case are being sent over to L.A. tomorrow, as it turns out Uncle Fenton is consulting for the New Hampshire office on their disappearance. He's coming over with Frank and Joe and the rest of the agents tomorrow afternoon." Don explained.

"Splendid," Alan replied. "I haven't seen them since the wedding, I did talk to Fenton on the phone the other day, and he seemed rather preoccupied, although he did tell me that Gertrude had a new recipe she wanted to tell me."

"Probably thinking over the case." Don replied.

"Is he worried Frank is going to be a target?" Alan asked knowingly.

"When I spoke to him, he said at this point he's concerned, but he's not certain he should be yet." Don answered.

"You're having Frank policed, too?" Alan asked raising an eyebrow at his eldest.

"Yes," Charlie confirmed. "Not only did he call Uncle Fenton, he called Joe as well."

"Frank's not going to appreciate that." Alan observed. Like their cousins Frank and Joe were infamous for their stubbornness, neither of them were known to like being bossed around or treated like a child.

"Can you really blame me?" Don asked. "It seems like every time I talk to Auntie Laura, I'm hearing about how one of them was kidnapped yet again."

"That's a fair point." He conceded. "And, Charlie try not to be too upset with your brother, he's only trying to look out for you."

"It's fine," Charlie said offering his brother a small smile. "I know he's just being his crazy, over-protective self."

"That's right." Don said nodding his head before he registered his brother's words fully. "Hey-I am not crazy over-protective! I'm just cautious, that's all."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Charlie said with a grin, getting up and bringing his plate into the kitchen. "I'll be in the garage; I have work to get done. See you tomorrow, Don."

**A/N Next chapter features the Hardys again. Review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Hello, everybody, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Here's the next installment.**

**Thanks to all reviewers!!**

**Dedication: To daisymall13 for her review.**

**Disclaimer: I own nada.**

"Hey, honey, how was work?" Callie Hardy nee Shaw greeted her husband when he entered the kitchen of their apartment.

"It was okay." Frank replied. "What are you cooking, something smells good?" Frank added.

"Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans." Callie replied absently. "You seem kind of annoyed." She noted as she glanced at the oven timer to check on the chicken.

"New case. Plus Joe is sort of getting on my nerves." Frank admitted, seating himself on one of the stools located behind their kitchen island.

"Trouble in paradise?" Callie asked teasingly.

"We've got this case concerning the disappearances of five prodigies in their individual fields; one in art, one in music, one in computers, one in linguistics, and one in chess. Joe is concerned that I could be a target." Frank explained. "He always jumps to conclusions, and it doesn't help that Don is egging him on."

"Your cousin? How is he involved in this?" Callie asked.

"It's an FBI case, the latest disappearance was in California." Frank explained.

"So, Don is worried that you could be a target, as well?" Callie asked her tone belying her own fears.

"Yeah, me and Charlie as well." He answered, tracing an abstract pattern on their countertop as he went over the details surrounding the case.

"Ah, so he thinks that you and Charlie need to be watched, basically?" Callie asked knowingly.

"Essentially." Frank answered. "When have you ever known me to be anything other than cautious? The way Joe was going on you'd think I was going to march right up to this guy, and jump up and down saying 'hey you, look at me, prodigy, right here!'" Frank added sarcastically. Callie had to hold back a snort of laughter at that image.

"That's more Joe's style." She said grinning fondly as she thought about her brother-in-law.

"Which is probably why he thinks everyone else would behave in the same manner." Frank concluded.

"Don't be too hard on him, he's just worried." Callie admonished her husband as she went to get the chicken out of the oven.

"Yeah, yeah." Frank muttered. "I'll keep that in mind." He continued as he gathered up the plate of green beans and bowl of mashed potatoes depositing them on their kitchen table while Callie brought over the chicken. "Want something to drink, babe?" He questioned heading over to the fridge.

"Diet coke would be lovely, thanks." Callie answered. Frank nodded his head absently grabbing two glasses from the cupboard and filling them up with ice before getting the soda out of the fridge.

"Listen, Cal, there's something else I need to talk to you about," Frank began as they sat down to dinner.

"Oh?" She asked interestedly.

"The bureau wants everyone involved in the case to head to the L.A. offices tomorrow morning and compile data, including dad, Joe, and I." Frank explained. "Dad just informed us this afternoon; sometimes I think Joe gets his tardiness from him." He added after a pause.

"How long are you going to be gone for?" Callie asked.

"Probably at least a week, Dad said to tell you he's sorry." He said in reply.

"I'll miss you; at least you're going the same weekend that Vanessa and I are going to the spa, though." Callie said. Callie was a second grade teacher at Bayport Elementary school, the kids had Monday off for some obscure holiday or other, and she was taking advantage of it to spend a weekend with her best friend who had managed to get the day off of work at her computer firm.

"True." Frank admitted. "I'll miss you as well. Make sure you keep you cell phone with you and actually _charged_." He added. Callie was notorious for either losing track of her phone or forgetting to charge it, making her nearly impossible to reach.

"I will." She replied with a laugh.

"See that you do." Frank said in a mock-stern tone.

A few blocks away, Joe Hardy was enjoying take-out Chinese with his long time girlfriend Vanessa Bender. It was a solid Wednesday night tradition for them to get dinner from their favorite Chinese restaurant.

"Is it just me or is the Sweet and Sour chicken particularly good tonight?" Joe questioned.

"Let me see," Vanessa answered reaching over and spearing a piece of the chicken off his plate. "I'd have to agree with you on that." She said nodding her head approvingly and totally ignoring his squawk of dismay at the stolen food.

"Setting aside your pilfering ways for the moment, I have something I need to discuss with you." Joe mentioned.

"What about?" Vanessa queried looking up from her egg roll.

"We're working on this new case, concerning missing geniuses-"

"You're worried about Frank." It was a statement, not a question.

"No, well, yes, but that's not even the point." Joe explained in a jumbled manner. "Anyway, we've got this case, five disappearances so far, each concerning someone in a different field, and each person disappearing from a different state. The latest one occurred in L.A. Dad has been consulting on the case for the FBI, and he is bringing us in on it, the bureau wants the different agencies to compile their data, and is flying everyone out to L.A. in order to do so."

"When do you leave?" Vanessa questioned tucking an errant strand of her ash blonde hair behind her ear.

"Tomorrow morning."

"They're forcing _you_ to get up early?" She asked laughingly.

"I know." Joe grumbled. "At least it's for a good cause."

"How long are you going for?" She asked.

"At least a week, very likely longer considering the lack of leads."

"Oh, Joe, I don't know how I'll go on without you for that long, I will be utterly bereft without you." Vanessa exclaimed dramatically before breaking into a grin. "Seriously though, I will miss you, make sure to call me, alright? Don't lose you phone, or your charger, remember to actually plug in your charger when charging it, etc."

"Haha, very funny." Joe said mock laughing at her display.

"_I_ thought it was, I'm glad you agree." Vanessa replied.

"I'd better go pack now." Joe said with a groan getting up and bringing his plate to the sink. "I loathe packing." He added before disappearing into their bedroom.

**A/N Review, please.** **Next chapter will be out soon.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hello, people. Yeah, I sort of forgot about updating...or at least how long it had been since I uploaded the last chapter. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**!

**Dedication: to Cheryl for her review. :D**

Their flight to L.A. had been relatively uneventful. Joe, renowned for his deep, abiding hatred for the morning, was half asleep for much of the flight, which took off at six in the morning. One of the other agents, an Agent Maroni was also not much of a morning person and he mostly sat in his seat grunting responses to his team members when questioned.

Frank was assured by one of Maroni's team members, Agent Garfield, that Maroni really was a pleasant person after six or seven cups of coffee. Frank had spent most of the flight discussing the case with Agent Garfield, an interesting woman of about thirty whose father and grandfather had also been agents, and Agent Klein, who he'd guess was a little bit younger than his cousin Don.

Once they tired of discussing the case they moved on to other topics, Frank discovered that Agent Klein had minored in Literature during his college days, and they passed an interesting discussion of Chaucer's intent in the Canterbury Tales.

His father spent the flight talking to the lead agent who had introduced himself to Frank and Joe as Agent Nichols.

They reached L.A. a little after eleven, and were ushered into waiting vehicles sent by the bureau which brought them to the hotel, which the FBI was paying for all the visiting agents and the Hardys to stay in while working on the case. Charlie had invited them to stay at the Craftsman but they had opted to stay at the hotel not wanting to be in the way. They just had time to check into the hotel and drop off their bags in their rooms before heading to the FBI offices. The meeting was scheduled for two o'clock that afternoon, but they wanted to spend a few minutes catching up with Don and Charlie (if he was there), before the meeting began.

When they arrived at the L.A. office Fenton spotted an old acquaintance and paused to speak to him, while Frank and Joe sought out their cousins.

"Frank, Joe, it's great to see you again." Don said swiftly hugging each of his cousins, before ushering them into a conference room. "Charlie's in here working on an analysis for one of our other cases, it's sort of on the backburner in light of recent events, but he thinks he has a breakthrough, so he's working it out." He explained as he held the door to the room open for them.

Charlie continued to write on the dry erase bored entirely oblivious to their presence and would've remained so if Don had not called out to him.

"_Charlie_," Said younger brother started at hearing his name called, before turning around and upon spotting his cousins rushing over to greet them. They spent a few minutes catching up, during which time Frank informed his eldest cousin that he did not care for his method of expressing concern. Frank was an adult in full control of his faculties, and as such did not appreciate having his father and _younger_ brother contacted over something that might not even have something to do with him. Don had merely laughed and said that he'd keep that in mind for the future, although he did not look very contrite. As the eldest of both families he felt the need to look out for both his little brother and his younger cousins.

"What are you working on?" Frank questioned Charlie noticing the way his cousin's fingers twitched around the dry erase marker he currently held, obviously itching to get back to work.

"A money laundering case, it's very subtly done, in fact I would've hardly noticed it, and they're obviously professionals." Charlie explained. He spent several minutes going over the details of the case and explaining the mathematical analysis he was working on (which none of them really understood). While the math was foreign to Frank, the method of money-laundering was not.

"Wasn't there a money laundering scheme very similar to this in England, in 1987?" He asked after mulling over where he recalled the information from for several moments.

"As to that, I'm not really sure…" Charlie replied thoughtfully. "I'll have to check into that." They spent several minutes longer discussing the money-laundering case before they headed off to the larger conference room that had been set aside for strategic meetings regarding the missing person case(s).

By the time they entered most of the agents were already seated, Frank, Joe, and Charlie slipped into seats near Fenton while Don who had been designated lead agent on the entire operation headed to the front of the room to address everyone.

"Since this is our first group meeting, I think it would be beneficial to go over what we know from each crime, therefore Agent Bedingfield, would you be so kind as to take us through the details of the disappearance in Minnesota." He said nodding to the lead agent of the Minnesota team.

"Victim was a woman by the name of Janet Malone, aged twenty-seven, artistic genius. She has artwork published internationally is thought to be the next Rembrandt or something along those lines. She normally works in her private studio from five a.m. to six p.m., however her husband didn't grow concerned right away when she didn't show up on time. He says that when she get's inspired she'll work non-stop for days." The agent paused evidently straightening out the details in his mind, and Don took the opportunity to smirk at his younger brother, raising an eyebrow as if to say 'remind you of someone?' Charlie simply rolled his eyes at him.

"He called her around midnight when she didn't show up at home, apparently they had some kind of engagement the next day and she needed to be up early the next day, so he thought he should call her. When she didn't answer he headed over to her studio and when she wasn't there, he drove back home thinking he may have missed her. When she wasn't there either, he tried her cell again, and called several friends and relatives. When none of them had heard from her all day, he phoned the police who filled out the missing persons report, and referred the case to us when it seemed she had been kidnapped." Bedingfield continued to elaborate on the details of the case, which weren't extensive as they had made little headway. "We searched the studio, but there was no evidence of a struggle, and her car was still parked outside, there were no witnesses, we think he must've grabbed her when she first arrived, since she starts work so early few people were out and about, as it is her studio is in a fairly deserted area."

"You found no solid evidence of any kind?" Don clarified, even though he already knew the answer to his question. The bureau had met hopeless dead ends at every turn in regards to this case. "Agent Garrison, report to us on the Florida case." Don commanded turning to the lead agent from Illinois, she was a capable woman of around thirty-six or seven, with a definite air of authority.

"The vic is a thirty-one year old male from Chicago, he's fluent in around twenty languages including several dead ones. He is a history and linguistics professor at the University of Chicago. He never showed up for his classes the day of his disappearance, a colleague of his called his house, and his cell when he got no answer he called the police. We searched for any sign of him; we found his car parked in its usual space in the parking lot and no sign of him, nor any sign of a struggle. I'd say he walked off of his own accord if everything I know about the victim didn't go against that, as well as of course the disappearances of all the other geniuses." She concluded her recitation and ceded the floor to the agent from New Hampshire.

It was obvious that Agent Nichols was frustrated by the lack of leads in these cases, as a rule law enforcement agents aren't terribly fond of having unsolved cases especially when they involve serious crimes such as kidnapping. Like most of the agents in the room he looked like he hadn't had a decent night's sleep in a while. He began his recitation after a few moments pause to gather his thoughts on the case. "Missing person is a twenty-six year old male, and a chess prodigy by the name of Jeremy Fanfold. He runs a youth center for underprivileged kids, they offer a variety of activities, and he personally teaches the kids how to play chess. He never showed up to a private lesson he was giving one of the kids, the kid alerted another administrator at the center, who attempted to contact at him at home and on his cell. When no one could locate him they called the police. His car was still at his house, we suspect that he was taken while on his morning jog, we retraced his usual route and had several witness reports of seeing him; he usually jogs through the path at a park near his house. A vendor reported that Fanfold bought a water bottle from his cart. A couple other park regulars recall seeing him, he goes off the charts sometime between exiting the park and returning home. We suspect the perp must be using some form of drugs to knock out the victims, because Fanfold is no lightweight, he's built along the lines of Agent Granger, it's unlikely that he could be overpowered without there being evidence of a struggle, of course it's possible that whoever did this had someone clean up any such signs, since we can't even nail down exactly where Fanfold was taken from. The only other thing we have is reports that a unfamiliar, black SUV was seen on the street outside the park, on the route Fanfold usually jogs home on. However, it could have just been someone parking there and going to the park, the only reason it raised any kind of a flag is that the park is relatively small, no one really goes to it besides those who live nearby, and most of the patrons know each other. A woman by the name of Eliza Thomas said that she saw it just sitting there, engine running, when she entered the park with her kids shortly after Fanfold would've arrived. She thought maybe the driver was waiting for someone in the houses across from the park and didn't give it much thought. Upon interviewing everyone on the street, no one recognized the description of the car, however, that doesn't prove anything, because for all we know it was someone visiting the park, and even if it is the car we're looking for there are millions of dark colored SUV's in the country."

It was easy to understand why Agent Nichols looked so frustrated; they had zero leads on a major case, one which included several upstanding members of their communities, many of whom, like Fanfold, contributed heaps of their time to volunteer work. Once agent Fanfold concluded his recap, Don called on the agent from Montana to speak.

"We're looking for a woman, aged thirty by the name of Emily Vander, she's renowned for her work with computers, we've actually had her in to consult with us several times." Agent Jefferson explained, his tone making it clear that the Montana agents considered this a personal attack. "She was supposed to be working on a case for us the day she went missing, she never showed up, which of course given the fact that she was supposed to be working on a case caused immediate concern. When no one could contact her we launched an official investigation. Her family owns a farm, and she lives in one of several houses on the property. Her parents say that she usually goes riding every morning, her horse was missing, they later found it wandering around on the edges of their property without Emily. We swept the area for any sign of her but were unable to turn anything up." Agent Jefferson concluded, obviously frustrated by the lack of advancement on the case.

"Alright, so far we've established that the first four cases have resulted in zero leads." Don stated, it wasn't a criticism of the other agents, just an observation. "Fortunately, we have a little bit more on the fifth case, though not by much. Our victim is a twenty-eight year old musician by the name of Kathryn Weston, she never showed up for rehearsal. When no one could locate her the police were called in. We questioned her neighbors, and while no one saw her get kidnapped, they do remember seeing a large, unfamiliar black panel van drive up and down the street several days before. One of her neighbors thought it seemed strange, concerned that whoever was in it might have been some sort of predator, the neighborhood is home to a lot of families, and wrote down the license plate intending to call the police if she ever saw it again. We traced the plate number which led us to a Honda Civic which had been reported stolen a few years ago, so no lead there. We have put an APB out on similar vehicles though, and we're hopeful we may find some sort of lead from that direction." Don finished. "On that note let's take a brief break for lunch, and than Agent Megan Reeves, our profiler, will tell us what she has so far."

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	6. Chapter 6

**A/N I'm officially running out of pre-written chapters to post, I am only a chapter and a half of our current location as of this update. I better get to work. haha. :P**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To Misty Claerwen Sunrise my newest reviewer. :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Don, having given everyone an hour off for lunch before they returned for further briefing on the case, decided to take his cousins and brother to his favorite sandwich place located a few blocks from his office. The four cousins were currently seated at a booth in the back of the shop enjoying their meal and catching up on each other's lives while simultaneously referencing the case.

"It seems like we're flat out of leads." Joe mused while idly stirring his drink with his straw. "It doesn't seem like there's very much to go on at all."

"What I don't get is why we have nothing to go on." Don said with a frown. "I've never seen anything like this, we have five very high profile people go missing, a couple of them in broad daylight, and no one saw anything? I find that hard to believe. How is this guy managing to do this?" It was unclear whether he meant this as a rhetorical question or not, but the others at the table decided to assume he wanted an answer.

"Well, he could be drugging them." Frank suggested. "Chloroform, maybe, it would explain how he managed to grab them without signs of a struggle…but even then he'd have to be pretty fast to knock them out and get them off the scene before anyone noticed them being dragged away." He added, absently drumming his fingers on the tabletop as he spoke.

"Well, have you considered the altruistic nature of the victims?" Joe asked.

"Why?" Don wondered. "You think the perp tricked them or something?"

"Well, we've got the victim from New Hampshire who ran a youth center for kids; he disappeared jogging through the park, right?"

"Yes." Don confirmed.

"Okay, well the agents said that somewhere between the park and his house he went missing, maybe someone asked him for help with something, like a broken down car?" Joe mused, drawing his eyebrows together in thought.

"It does make a certain amount of sense." Charlie agreed. "However, do we have anything that would actually confirm that theory? Other than knowledge that the

victim was into helping people?"

"Well, there was the report of an SUV parked outside of the park at around the time Fanfold disappeared, which does add some credence to the theory, although it is by no means concrete." Frank replied.

"At this point we can't confirm that one way or another, but it is worth looking into." Don said. "This case is a mess, and we need to move quickly before anyone else disappears." He added.

"On that note, we should probably be heading back; our lunch break is almost over." Charlie pointed out.

They arrived back at the L.A. office and returned to the conference room where the meetings regarding the case were being held. Agents lolled about the room waiting for the meeting to resume, chatting with each other about the weather, the case, and numerous other topics. Frank, Joe, and Charlie returned to their seats while Don returned to his spot at the front of the room.

"At this time, I'm going to turn the floor over to Agent Megan Reeves, who will be giving us a preliminary profile on the type of person who would do this." Don announced quieting all the agents assembled in the room. "Megan?"

"The profile I have assembled so far is only preliminary, and not necessarily exact, as we do not have much evidence to go on currently." Megan cautioned as she began her report. "At this point I am almost positive that these crimes were committed by the same person, it is highly unlikely that we could have this many geniuses disappear at once, if you're interested in the exact odds feel free to ask Professor Eppes." She continued pausing to wink at Charlie before she continued.

"Whoever is behind these kidnapping probably likes to be in control, which is typical of most kidnappers. I can't tell you whether whoever did this is violent; there haven't been any indications that he or she is violent so far, but that doesn't mean that they won't hurt the victims if provoked." Megan said grimly. "I can tell you that everything so far indicates that this person is not going to stop abducting people until he accomplishes his goal whatever that may be or we stop him one or the other." She continued. "Judging from the victims thus far, I would say this guy is 'collecting,' gathering prodigies from different fields for some purpose. Possibly for his own sick amusement, or he may be using them for some form of black market activities."

"Do we have any leads on other possible targets?" Agent Nichols asked as Megan concluded her recap.

"Well, beyond the fact that geniuses are being targeted we don't have much to go on, and considering there are thousands if nots millions of geniuses in the United States alone, there's not much we can do from that angle." Megan responded.

"Have we considered putting out a press release warning all geniuses to at the very least be on their guard?" Agent Garrison asked. "I mean, we do it with serial killers and rapists targeting specific types of people all the time, couldn't we apply the same sort of policy here?"

"Generally, in those cases we're talking about someone operating in a fairly small area, so, the slight panic caused by such an announcement is outweighed by the benefits, on the other hand if we start telling every genius in the entire country to expect an attack..." Don trailed off meaningfully. It occurred to him that Frank and Charlie were probably correct in thinking him overprotective, the likelihood of either of them being a target out of the millions of geniuses available to the perp were fairly slim, not much more than the odds they'd have of being attacked on any given day (and probably considerably less than Frank's chances of being kidnapped for any other reason considering how often he or Joe went missing).

"Well, then how are we going to proceed from here?" Agent Bedingfield asked.

"We know that there was a black SUV at the scene of the New Hampshire crime, and a panel van at the L.A. scene. We'll need to hunt down whatever we can find from that angle, and considering our lack of leads we should probably start going through old case files for any similar crimes." Don replied warily. "I know we don't have much, but we need to work with what we've got."

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	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Hello, everybody, sorry for the long wait. I've been swamped lately, I had state debate number one last weekend, so I've been busy preparing for that. **

**Thanks to all reviewers!!**

**Dedication: To sparkreno, my newest reviewer.**

**Disclaimer: I own nada.**

"Alan, good to see you again, it's been a while." Fenton Hardy greeted his brother-in-law upon being ushered into what was now Charlie's house.

"It has," Alan acknowledged. "How are Laura and Gertrude? Well, I trust?" He asked as he bustled about the kitchen looking for seasoning to add to the chicken stir-fry he was currently concocting.

"They're doing well, Gertrude sent a recipe with us to give you, and Laura sends her love to the three of you." Fenton replied.

"Where are the others?" Alan asked after accepting an index card from Fenton with a recipe for for manicotti written in Gertrude Hardy's precise handwriting.

"They dropped me off at the car rental lot, and then they were going to stop at the store and pick up some beer, according to Charlie, you guys are fresh out of it." Fenton replied.

"Speak of the devil," Alan remarked as the front door slammed open with the sounds of four loud male voices. They seemed to be arguing over what team was most likely to win the super bowl that year, and despite the well-reason arguments on both sides (read: loud and clearly partisan) none of the four seemed likely to change their minds. "Looks like they're back." He added unnecessarily.

"Uncle Alan, how've you been?" Joe questioned breaking off their argument in order to greet his uncle.

"Very well, thank you, Joe." Alan replied. "Frank, how have you and Callie been? Still in the Honeymoon stage?" He added by way of greeting to his elder nephew.

"We've been great thanks, she's going to the spa this weekend with Vanessa." Frank replied.

"Ah, yes, and how is your relationship going, Joe? Planning to follow in your brother's footsteps any time soon?" Alan asked.

"It's going well." Joe answered seemingly ignoring the veiled hints about getting married.

"We're not enough for you anymore, Dad?" Don asked teasingly. "Got to start marrying off your nephews, too?"

"Only because I'm beginning to lose hope that either of you will ever settle down. I'm doomed to a grandchild-less existence." Alan retorted. Of the four younger men, Frank was the only one who looked amused. "Anyway, dinner should be just about done, so if Charlie would be so kind as to set the table we could eat in a few minutes."

Charlie dutifully followed his father into the kitchen to get the cutlery while Don led the others into the dining room. Less than ten minutes later they were all seated around the table enjoying Alan's stir fry.

"How goes the case?" Alan asked.

"It doesn't." Don answered glumly.

"We have no leads." Joe elaborated.

"Ah." Alan replied succinctly. "I'm sure you'll get some soon." He added to reassure his eldest.

"I hope so." Don answered.

"What's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Alan asked.

"We're splitting into separate teams to hunt down leads." Don replied. "Charlie together with Frank and Joe are leading the research down at Calsci, looking for similar cases and other connections between the current ones. I'm going to be at the LA office coordinating the teams, and Uncle Fenton is going to be going with a few other agents to talk to family members of the LA vic."

"I still don't understand why I'm on the research team." Joe complained. "Charlie I understand completely, Frank probably has every case regarding serial kidnappers, killers, and every crime ever memorized so that makes sense too, but why do _I _have to research?"

"I do _not _have every case memorized." Frank dissented. "And, you're just as good at researching as I am."

"You have a fresh way of looking at things, you'll bring a new ideas to the case." Don replied.

"Besides, between me and Frank do you really think either of us will consider a gut-feeling?" Charlie asked. Both Frank and Charlie were notorious for their disregard for anything that couldn't be be proven by logic and evidentiary support.

"Speaking of Calsci, you should be sure to introduce your cousins to Amita." Alan hinted to his youngest son and brought an abrupt end to any further discussion on the topic of tomorrow's case.

"I will." Charlie affirmed.

By this time they had finished with dinner, and Alan exited the dining room and returned with a large apple pie which he had baked in honor of the Hardys' arrival. They lingered over dessert for another half an hour or so, before the Hardys decided they should return to their hotel room, and Don reluctantly agreed that he should head back to his apartment as he needed to be into work early tomorrow to begin filtering through their scarce leads. They were planning to set up a tip line to see if anyone had knowledge about the disappearances, which would inevitably lead to a multitude of false leads which would take hours if not days to sort through. Though, he supposed it would be worth it if they managed to glean the least bit of reliable evidence or even just a nudge in the right direction. Tomorrow promised to be a very long day, Don mused as he followed his cousins and uncle out the door of his brother's house.

When the Hardys arrived back to the hotel, Frank and Joe went straight to their shared room after exchanging a brief good night with their father. Both Frank and Joe immediately pulled out their cell phones and proceeded to call Callie and Vanessa respectively.

"Hey, Cal." Frank greeted as soon as his wife's voice sounded through the earpiece.

"We're not supposed to use the phone, you know." Callie said in a mock-reproachful tone. "Something about relaxing from the outside world or whatever."

Frank snorted at the very notion of Callie giving up her phone. "So, you're enjoying the spa then?"

"Yes, overall." Callie replied. "The spa treatments are wonderful even if they do have skewed beliefs about cell phones. How is your case going?" She continued.

"We don't have much so far," Frank admitted. "Charlie, Joe, and I are going to go through files of old cases and looking for similar cases, although Charlie will hopefully be able to narrow them down for us in some fashion first."

"Well, I hope you guys find some leads soon, I'd like nothing better than for you to solve this case and get back home."

"Me too. Though it is nice to see my cousins and Uncle Alan." Frank replied.

"I'd better go, Vanessa and I are attending a yoga session tomorrow morning. And, by morning, I mean _morning,_ as in like, sunrise_._"

"Joe will be horrified." Frank said with a laugh. "Talk to you later, Cal. Love you."

"Bye, Frank. Love you, too." Callie answered before ending the call.

At the same time as Frank and Callie were holding their conversation, Vanessa and Joe were updating each other on the past day's events.

"How's the spa weekend progressing?" Joe asked.

"It's been great so far, I had a lovely facial this afternoon." Vanessa replied with a grin which was sadly wasted on her long time boyfriend as he was unable to view it through the phone. "How is the case going?" She added.

"Eh. It's going...slowly, very, very slowly." Joe answered. "We don't have much in the way of leads so far."

"I'm sure you'll get some soon." Vanessa said soothingly. "Anyway, I'd better get going, Callie just hung up with Frank, and we have an early start tomorrow."

"Ugh. Morning." Joe replied eloquently. "Love you, babe."

"Love you, too." Vanessa replied laughingly as she pictured the disgruntled look on his face at the thought of rising at such an obscenely early hour.

Joe concluded his conversation with Vanessa and decided to follow her example and head to bed, since he too was facing a fairly early morning. He mumbled a good night to his brother before tumbling into his bed.

**A/N Review, please.** **Next chapter will be out soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Hello, my darling readers. Apologies for the long wait but I've been swamped with school and what not, however with my recent graduation I now have scads of time to update in.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To PorsheDsgn, my newest reviewer.**

**Disclaimer: Plot is mine, characters are not.**

"Okay, Frank you can set up over by my desk," Charlie began only to be interrupted when he turned to his cousin and noticed a horrified look on his face.

"In order to do that, I'd have to be able to find your desk..." Frank replied, his eyes sweeping past stacks of books, papers, chalkboards, and other miscellaneous items in search of the sought after object. He finally located it in the corner, the surface of the desk was completely covered with Charlie's possessions, and the entire thing was semi-obscured behind a chalk board.

"It is not _that_ bad." Charlie denied.

"Don't mind Frank, he's a total neat freak." Joe began what was clearly a well-rehearsed tirade about his brother's obsession with organization.

"Compared to you, half the world is a neat freak." Frank retorted making his way through Charlie's carefully organized office to sit at the desk. They soon settled down to work, mostly in silence, although they did occasionally offer ideas up to each other. Charlie was currently working at a blackboard, while Joe sat on the opposite side of Charlie's desk from Frank.

"Why would someone want to kidnap a bunch of geniuses?" Joe asked thoughtfully.

"Black market activities, some kind of vendetta, who knows why people make the decisions they do." Frank replied, looking up from his laptop to answer his brother's question.

"Actually, human behavior is predictable to a certain degree with proper data." Charlie remarked. "Unfortunately, we have very little information in this situation." He continued, raking a hand through his curly hair as he thought. "We may not have a lot of insight into who is behind these disappearances, or why they're doing it, but we may be able to identify potential victims."

"Assuming that he is planning to kidnap people gifted in different fields, what are we still looking for?" Joe asked.

"We have an artistic genius, a chess prodigy, a computer expert, a linguist and a musical genius gone so far." Frank recited. "Which means he should still take someone in one or more scientific fields, a mathematician, a literature expert, possibly someone in sports or something else kinesthetic, or maybe a writer."

"So, we have nothing." Joe surmised.

"Technically, we have very little, we actually do know a small amount." Charlie corrected. Joe rolled his eyes at his cousin in response to this.

Their argument came to an abrupt end when the door to Charlie's office was abruptly opened. Charlie, used to random students, government agents, and professors wandering into his office was pretty much nonplussed by this intrusion.

"Can I help you?" The curly-haired professor asked the two men who stood in front of the door to his office. The taller of the two men, who Charlie estimated was about six foot three closed the door to the office with a decisive click.

"Are you Charles Eppes?" The second man, who was probably around five foot eleven asked rather than responding to Charlie's question.

"Yes." Charlie answered hesitantly.

"Just the man we were looking for." The first man said with a grim smile. "And, you, you're Frank Hardy, correct?" He looked at Frank for verification.

The eldest Hardy frowned at the man beginning to feel that something was off about the situation. He was about to respond when Joe beat him to the punch.

"Who exactly are you guys?" The younger Hardy demanded.

"Did we forget to introduce ourselves?" The second of the two men asked. "I apologize for the oversight." He added, and moved forward across the office as though he were going to offer the others a hand to shake.

Instead, upon reaching the other side of the office, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it directly at the two brother's, while his partner motioned for Charlie to move toward him with his own handgun.

"Put your hands where I can see them, and don't make any sudden movements." The shorter of the two men who had dark blond hair ordered. Frank and Joe did as commanded while exchanging anxious glances with each other trying to decide what to do.

"What is this about?" Frank demanded.

"Our boss requires the assistance of Frank Hardy, and Charles Eppes, and we are here to fulfill that request." He replied. Frank looked over the man's shoulder in time to see the taller of their two assailants seize Charlie by the arm and jam his gun into the professor's side.

"Help with what, precisely?" Frank inquired.

"I'm sure he will be happy to explain the particulars to you once we reach our destination. Now, if you would be so kind as to walk around the desk and join your cousin?"

Frank scanned the room wondering if he could manage to attack either of their two assailants before they had time to shoot them, deciding that there was not a good chance of this, Frank walked around the desk and was immediately seized on the arm by the hand which the man was not using to train his gun on Joe. Frank was shoved backward toward the taller man who had already subdued Charlie. The elder Hardy stumbled but did not actually fall.

"Don't worry, we're not interested in harming either of you." The man currently holding Frank and Charlie at gun-point reassured them, making for one of the more paradoxical moments the two cousins had been a part of.

"On the other hand, it's highly unfortunate that you had to be here." The other intended kidnapper remarked to Joe. "Our boss has no interest in you, and we can hardly afford to leave you here to spread what you know..." He continued in an almost apologetic tone.

"Do you honestly think I am going to stand by and allow you to shoot my younger brother?" Frank asked incredulously.

"I don't see how you have much choice in the matter."

"Oh, but he does." Charlie remarked, the math professor eyed the guns trained on them nervously but continued speaking nonetheless. "If I've made the correct deductions, which I'm fairly certain that I have, than your so-called boss is the one who has been abducting geniuses throughout the country, therefore he has warned you against harming either Frank or my self as it might damage the product he desires, thus, if Frank and I decide to fight you have little chance of successfully abducting us without causing damage."

"If, however, you agree not to harm Joe, we'll come quietly." Frank added.

"Hell no." Joe snapped. "If you two think that I'm allowing you to sacrifice your selves, you've been inhaling too much chalk dust."

Their two would-be kidnappers exchanged a long look, as though attempting to decide on something. After a few moments of this silent conversation the man training the gun on Joe pulled a cell phone out of his jacket pocket and was soon engaged in conversation with his boss.

"Boss? We've got a problem." There was a pause, in which the aforementioned employer had probably made an inquiry of some sort, but the occupants of the room, excluding the one who was actually on the phone were unable to hear what it was. "Hardy's brother is here, and he and Eppes are refusing to come quietly if we shoot the brother, talk about unreasonable..." Frank scoffed at this, but was silenced when the kidnapper closer to him pointedly jabbed him in the side with his handgun. "Ah. Great. We'll do that. See you soon." He hung up the phone with that. He nodded significantly at his colleague who extracted a syringe from his pocket.

"This contains a drug which is known to cause short-term memory loss, it will most likely wipe-out your memory of the last several hours." He indicated to Joe. He tossed the capped syringe to his fellow employee who caught it in his free hand.

"How do we know you're not poisoning him?" Frank asked.

"You don't. However, you don't have much choice in the matter."

The man nearest to Joe, swung out with his gun before the Hardy had time to react, Joe slumped to the ground. The man crouched beside him and injected the syringe into his arm, before getting up and dragging Joe around to the other side of the desk, so that he was invisible from the doorway. He then strode across the room toward Frank and Charlie.

"The two of you, are going to walk out of here, nice and calm like. In fact, you Dr. Eppes, are going to even lock your office door so that it seems like you left of your own volition. We don't want to hurt you, but we've been authorized to do so if absolutely necessary." The taller of their kidnappers ordered them. He also searched their pockets confiscating their cell-phones and turning them both off before depositing them on Charlie's desk. Frank and Charlie were ushered out the door, pausing only when their kidnappers turned off the lights and for Charlie to lock the door.

They were swiftly rushed to the nearest exit, their assailants having produced hats which they used to shield their features. A black van with tinted windows, similar in description to the one seen at the other California kidnapping was waiting outside for them. Frank and Charlie were forced to get in the back, with the shorter of their kidnappers, while the other one got into the passenger seat. Frank's left wrist was cuffed to the handle on the ceiling of the car while his right wrist was swiftly cuffed to Charlie's left one.

"No talking."

With this last command the van zoomed out of the parking lot, driven by a third man who had auburn colored hair, which was pretty much all they had ascertained so far as he was driving and had not deigned to turn around to see them. As a result Frank and Charlie were left to their own thoughts on the drive to wherever it was that they were headed to.

**A/N: Review! Updates should come quickly since I am on winter break. I'm going to try for once a week as I have an assortment of ongoing stories.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Hello, my lovely readers! :) Be in awe, I have returned with an update on the actual day which I said I would update on, who is shocked? **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to Misutii Hi No De for her lovely review! :)**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot.**

The van drove through a large iron gate which opened at its approach and closed once the vehicle was clear of it. The van made its way to the end of a long drive to pull up in front of a large mansion which was shielded from view by virtue of being a few hundred feet back from the road, as well as fenced in, and obscured from view by the many trees that grew on the property.

Frank and Charlie were escorted from the vehicle and into the house. Their two captors remained with them, while the car's driver went off, presumably to inform whoever was in charge of their arrival. The cousins were led up two flights of stairs, and down a hallway lined with identical metal doors, all of which were locked from the outside.

The first door they passed on the left bore a nameplate saying "J. Malone, Art." The one across the hall proclaimed, "A. Harrington, Linguistics." As they made their way down the hall they passed the rooms of: "J. Fanfold, Chess," "E. Vander, Computers," "K. Weston, Music," and "B. Nemi, Strategist." They paused outside two rooms, the one on the left bore the description, "F. Hardy, Literature," while the one across the hall read, "C. Eppes, Mathematics."

"This is where you will be staying." The taller of their two kidnappers informed Frank, holding the door open for the detective and gesturing for him to go inside, which he did seeing as he didn't see much else in the way of options. He exchanged a quick goodbye with his cousin before walking into the room. The door was promptly shut behind him.

Charlie was similarly hastened into the room across the hall, the door was swiftly shut behind him, and presumably locked as well, although he did not bother to test it.

**-Story Break-**

Meanwhile, at the FBI offices, Don Eppes could best be described as annoyed and vaguely worried. He had attempted to phone his brother several times only to have the phone go straight to voicemail, which was not so strange in and of itself as Charlie often forgot to charge the device. What was strange however was that his attempt to call Frank's cell phone had similarly gone straight to voicemail, and when he attempted to call Joe the Phone merely continued to ring without answer several times before cutting to voicemail. After trying all three phones several times he decided just to head over to Cal Sci and find out what the hell was going on.

Which is how he found himself a short while later outside the locked door to his brother's darkened office. He tried Joe's cell phone again as it was the only one that had been on to be greeted by the sound of his cousin's ring tone resounding from the closed office door.

He was now really starting to worry, and he headed down the hallway to Larry's office locating the other professor and asking him for a key to Charlie's office. Don often wondered at the fact that Charlie chose to keep his spare key with Larry, as the other professor could hardly be called organized. Although, he was at least better than Charlie, although that wasn't really saying much.

Larry surrendered the key into Don's custody after expressing his concern for his friend's welfare, and requesting that Don report back to him once he knew what was going on. Don agreed and took off down the hallway toward his brother's office. Upon entering the office and turning on the lights he was greeted by a pained groan sounding somewhere from behind his brother's desk.

Don pulled out his gun and cautiously made his way over to the area in question. Upon reaching it, he spotted his cousin passed out on the floor and dropped to his knees beside him. He noted with relief that Joe was breathing and pulled out his phone calling for an ambulance as well as back-up.

"Joe?" Don questioned tapping his cousin lightly on the cheek in an attempt to wake him up.

**-Story Break-**

Frank was currently left with nothing to do at the moment besides explore the room had been left in. It was windowless with white walls. A twin bed rested against the far right wall, and a door next to the bed opened into a small bathroom. The entire front portion of the room was taken up with floor to ceiling bookshelves, which were filled with books varied from Ancient Greek plays to Harry Potter. The left wall sported a closet, which was filled with clothes in his size, which Frank found extremely creepy. A desk rested against the back wall, and when Frank opened it he found that it was well stocked with paper and other supplies.

Evidently, whoever had kidnapped him anticipated that he would be staying for quite awhile. Frank sat down at the desk and drummed his finger's against the desktop lightly in thought, one benefit of his current situation is that he could now confirm that all of the geniuses had been kidnapped by the same person or persons, also he had discovered via the nameplates that they had acquired another 'guest' by the name of B. Nemi, in addition to Charlie and himself. The downside of this new information was that it was pretty much a moot point as he had no way of informing the FBI about it, and if he did then he wouldn't currently be kidnapped.

He was also extremely worried about his brother and he only hoped that he had been found by now, and was not badly injured by the combination of the head injury and the drug he had been injected with. Frank would just have to bide his time and wait for news.

**-Story Break-**

Don's team along with paramedics and a crime scene unit had arrived on the scene shortly after he called, Joe was currently being loaded into the ambulance while Don related what had happened to Megan, Colby and David.

"I am going to go with Joe to the hospital. I want you to call me as soon as you find out anything." Don informed his team. "Hopefully Joe will know what happened to Frank and Charlie." He flinched slightly as he said this and it was clear to everyone that he was extremely worried about his little brother and cousins.

"Of course." Megan agreed. "We'll call as soon as we know anything." She repeated. Don smiled briefly at them in thanks before getting into the ambulance with his cousin.

"This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" Colby murmured sarcastically as they set about canvasing Charlie's office for clues.

After a few minutes of search, Colby let out a cry of triumph. "I found something!"

**-Story Break-**

Across the hall from his cousin Charlie was also exploring his new accomodations. The room was similar in layout to Frank's room. A bed rested against the right hand wall, and a door also led to a bathroom. The room sported white walls and was similarly windowless. He also had a desk and closet stocked with clothes in his seize.

Unlike Frank's room, which had been stocked with books of all sorts, the entire front wall was a floor to ceiling chalkboard. He found his desk to be well-stocked with boxes of chalk as well. He had also been supplied with an ipod well stocked with the music he usually listened to while he worked. This was beginning to grow a little bit creepy.

It was rapidly becoming clear to the genius that whoever was holding him hostage did not plan on letting him leave anytime soon.

He collapsed onto the bed and threw an arm over his face. He really should have listened to Don.

**A/N I don't envy Don having to inform everyone that Charlie and Frank have disappeared. I especially don't envy Fenton the task of informing Callie that he has managed to lose her husband...in like a day...oh, and Laura, Laura will not be at all happy about this. :P**

**Review! Update next Saturday.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Sorry about the lateness everyone. I'm currently in Florida on vacation which has delayed my updating. I will do my very best to get up to date however.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To Misutii Hi No De for her lovely review. Sorry to have kept you in suspense. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I own the plot nothing else.**

Joe had been wheeled away on a gurney almost half an hour ago, leaving Don in the waiting room to contact Fenton and Alan and inform enlighten them as to the current state of affairs, something that Don was not at all looking forward to. He called his uncle first largely because he knew the information would soon be hitting the FBI offices if it hadn't already and he didn't want his uncle to find out via a third party.

"Uncle Fenton?" Don asked when he heard his uncle's familiar voice on the line.

"What is it, Don?" Fenton asked immediatly picking up on the note of anxiety in his nephew's voice.

"I'm at the hospital, Charlie and Frank have been abducted most likely by whoever kidnapped the other missing geniuses, and Joe was injured when they were taken, it didn't seem that bad though." Don hastened to reassure his uncle. "He has a slight head injury, but I'm sure he'll be fine. He's in with the doctor now." Don finished.

"I'll be right there." Fenton's voice was mostly calm but there was a slight quaver to it that betrayed his worry.

"Okay. Bye." Don hung up the phone and braced himself for the upcoming conversation with his father.

Alan Eppes did not answer the phone, instead Don was greeted with the answering machine. "Dad, it's Don, something's happened, call me as soon as you get this message, okay? It's very important." With that Don disconnected the line. He hadn't wanted to leave the news of Charlie and Frank's abduction on the answering machine nor Joe's injuries. Hopefully, his father would cget back to him soon.

**-Story Break-**

Frank had been lying on the bed of his room lost in thought wondering what the odds were they were going to be able to escape, as well as what exactly it was that their captor hoped to achieve. His thought process was interrupted when a voice sounded from the intercom system located near the door. He would guess that each room probably had one.

"Attention, dinner will be served at exactly half-past six o'clock this evening, you are all expected to dress formally for the occasion, after the meal you will recieve your assignments. That is all."

The voice was gone as suddenly as it had arrived and Frank was left starring incredulously at the intercom. Exactly where was he, and what was the assignment he was expected to complete? He glanced at the clock and found that it was already six o'clock. He contemplated ignoring the order to dress formally, and decided against it, figuring that it was better to go along with whatever instructions he was given for the time being while he attempted to figure out what exactly was going on.

He made his way over to the closet and scanned through the contents in search of appropriate articles of clothing.

**-Story Break-**

"Family of Joseph Hardy?"

Don looked up to find a male doctor in his late thirties glancing around the waiting room in search of Joe's relatives. Fenton had yet to arrive, so Don was still alone.

"Over here." Don said standing up and shaking the doctor's hand. "Is Joe going to be alright?" Don asked.

"Joe has sustained a blow to the head. The doctor began. "He has a mild concussion, but he should be fine. He will be waking up soon, you can go sit with him." The doctor, whose name Don had found out was Dr. Watkins, concluded. "He's in room 303."

"Thank you." Don replied distractedly already heading toward the elevators to seek out his cousin. Joe was awake when Don entered the room, although he seemed to be confused as to what had happened.

"Don? What's going on?" Joe asked anxiously upon spotting his cousin.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Don asked as he walked over to his cousin's bedside.

"I was researching in Charlie's office, Frank was talking about how unorganized it was, and then Charlie was talking about how human behavior can be predicted and that's the last thign I remember." Joe replied. Are they okay? Is Frank okay?" He asked worriedly.

"You don't remember what happened?" Don asked for confirmation purposes. He felt like punching something, or someone, preferably whoever had kidnapped Charlie and Frank.

"No, now tell me what's going on, Don." Joe replied.

"You were knocked out when I got to Charlie's office, Frank and Charlie were both missing. I think they were abducted." Don replied.

"Son of a bitch." Joe exclaimed fisting the blankets angrily.

**-Story Break-**

"Eppes." Don's terse voice sounded through the cell phone.

"Don, we've found something." Megan informed her boss.

"What is it?" The SAC demanded of his team member. They hadn't caught many breaks so far, and with Joe unable to remember what happened they would need all the help they could get.

"It seems that Joe recorded the events in the office." Megan announced triumphantly. "Colby found his cell phone propped up on Charlie's desk." She explained.

"We have actual video confirmation of what happened?" Don asked for clarifying purposes.

"Yes," Megan confirmed. "Two men entered the office, Charlie was working at a black board, while Frank and Joe were seated at his desk, the quality isn't the best but the tech guys say they can clean it up, they knocked Joe over the head with a gun, and then they inject him with something apparently to cause memory loss,"

"Yeah, Joe is awake and he can't remember anything that happened." Don interjected.

"Charlie and Frank were escorted out of the office at gunpoint, but otherwise unharmed at the time of their abduction." Megan continued. "We're in the process of pulling Cal Sci security footage for further information on what happened after they left Charlie's office."

"Good work." Don replied as his cell phone beeped indicating that he had another call, he glanced at it and found it to be his father. This was a conversation he was not looking forward to.

"Donnie?" Alan's voice sounded anxiously through the phone.

"I have some bad news, Dad."

"What happened?" His father demanded sensing that whatever it was was very serious.

"Charlie and Frank were kidnapped, we think by the same people who took the other missing geniuses. Joe was injured in the ensuing conflict, we're at the hospital now, but he's fine." Don replied after a pause as he contemplated how to phrase it, and decided that just coming out and saying it was the best option.

"Do you have any leads yet?" Alan asked.

"We've made some progress, and we can confirm that Frank and Charlie were uninjured when they left Cal Sci." Don reassured his father.

"I'll be right there." Alan said in answer before ending the call.

**A/N Major revelations in the next chapter. We're going to find out more about the guy who has Frank and Charlie. ;)**

**Review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Hello, my lovely readers, I apologize for the slight delay in updates. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To daisymall13 for her review.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot and the evil people.**

At exactly five fifty-five p.m. the door to Frank's room was opened and he was told to come stand on the left-hand side of the door and wait for further directions. When he exited the room and did as directed he spotted his cousin similarly standing next to his door, and a glance down the hall allowed him to glimpse the rest of the captive geniuses doing the exact same thing. The man who had entered Frank's room, headed back down the hall to stand at the front of the line. He introduced himself as Mr. Jones although Frank highly doubted that was his actual name. They were directed to turn toward the staircase and merge into a single line. Charlie was last in the line, Frank just in front of him.

The entire group was led by Jones down the stairs, through the front hall and past six rooms until Jones opened a pair of French doors which led into a dining room. They were directed to find their spot via the place-cards resting on the plates, but were warned not to sit down until 'the boss,' as Jones called him arrived.

The place-cards were set-up in alphabetical order, thus Charlie found his spot to be the seat directly to the right of the head chair. He was seated next to Jeremy Fanfold, whom he recognized from the pictures at the FBI office. On Fanfold's other side was Frank, who sat next to Andrew Harrington.

Across from Harrington on the left hand side of the table sat Janet Malone, who was seated next to Benjamin Nemi. On Nemi's other side sat Emily Vander, and then directly across from Charlie sat Kathryn Weston.

At six o'clock precisely the French doors opened once more and a stern looking man in a suit entered and made his way down the row of chairs, seating himself at the head of the table. This apparently was a signal for the rest of them to sit because those geniuses who had been their longer followed suit, and Frank, Charlie, and Benjamin, who had also been kidnapped that day from Washington D.C., quickly took the hint and sat down as well.

"Good evening, everyone." The man said in his best school-teacher voice.

His greeting was quickly followed by a mumbled 'good evening, Mr. Satori.' Judging by the quick responses he manage to get from his captives, Frank was fairly sure this was not someone he should cross, at least not until he had a sure way of escaping.

"I would like you all to greet your newest colleagues, Dr. Charles Eppes, a mathematician, Dr. Frank Hardy, a private investigator specializing in literature, and Dr. Benjamin Nemi, a strategist previously working with the United States government."

Frank despite his two Ph.D's still found it exceedingly strange to be referred to as 'doctor,' and usually ignored the title. Satori's introduction elicited another round of mumbling this time 'hello, Drs. Eppes, Hardy, and Nemi.' as opposed to 'good evening, Mr. Satori.'

"Now, I'm sure that you three probably have quite a few questions, however I must insist that you hold on to them until after dinner, at which point I will be happy to explain the situation you have found yourselves in. We will be meeting in the conference room for discussion and further assignments." He concluded. "Now, let us eat."

As though in response to his words the French doors opened and a man who appeared to be the butler, who Satori addressed as Barnes, entered pushing a cart laden with food. He placed the serving dishes on the table and asked Satori if he would be needing anything further. Upon receiving a negative answer the butler retreated from the room.

The meal passed mostly in silence, it seemed that most of the geniuses were reluctant to talk in front of their captor not a particularly surprising turn of events. The only conversation that took place was largely elicited by Satori who questioned each of the occupants in turn about their individual subject areas asking them what projects they had been working on and whether there was anything they needed not currently in their rooms.

The responses he drew were largely stilted. No one seemed eager to converse with him by any stretch of the imagination. When the meal was finished Satori led the way out of the room and down the hallway opening the door to a conference room, a large oaken table took up the majority of the room, chairs were positioned around the table name-plates marking where each of them should sit. The seating seemed to be according to subject area as opposed to alphabetical as the dinnertime seating was, rather it appeared to be designed so that people with similar subject areas would be positioned near each other.

Frank was seated directly to the right of the head seat, next to Andrew Harrington, the linguistics specialist and University of Chicago professor. On Andrew's other side sat Kathryn Weston, the musician, on Kathryn's left sat Janet Malone, the first individual kidnapped by Satori and artist. Across from Janet on the other side of the table sat Jeremy Fanfold, the philanthropic chess master, who had Benjamin Nemi, the newest captive apart from Frank and Charlie as well as being a military strategist. Next to Benjamin was Emily Vander, the computer specialist, and finally directly across from Frank sat Charlie.

Satori seated himself at the head of the table in between Frank and Charlie. He indicated that they should all sit down before he began speaking. "We have a lot to discuss tonight, but before we get down to business we are going to begin with explanations in the same way we have done for each new addition to my collection, since I acquired Mrs. Malone," He ignored the disgruntled looks present on the majority of faces upon being referred to as though a rare stamp in a collection. "I am by nature a collector, I collect various things including houses such as the one we are currently residing in,"

"Where is it that we are, exactly?" Frank asked. "Out of curiosity, of course."

"Well played, indeed, Dr. Hardy, however I will not be revealing our location to you even though I highly doubt that you will have the opportunity to apprise anyone else of it."However, I really must beg that you will not interrupt me, I don't care for it _at all_." Despite his deceptively polite words his voice was cold making it clear that further interruption would result in exceedingly unpleasant occurrences. "Continuing on, as I said, I am a collector, and lately I've found I've grown bored of my usual collections, endangered animals, Egyptian artifacts, the usual black market stuff, I was thinking recently and the thought occurred to me that what is a better collection than a collection of people?"

"What indeed." Came a sarcastic sounding murmur from Emily.

Satori ignored her. "So, then it was only a matter of deciding what type of people I wanted to collect. I pondered for months and the thought finally occurred to me, what could be better than a collection of geniuses of all different types? I could rent them out, allowing others to sample their expertise, I could turn a nice profit and at the same time assemble one of the rarest collections in the world." He paused here looking around the room. "Any questions?"

Seeing none he continued speaking, "Now, as those of you who have been with us for awhile already know your expertise and availability have been discreetly advertised, thus you will each be receiving weekly assignments either for me, or for a client, you will complete these tasks without question, or you will regret it strongly. I don't want to have to hurt any of you, damaged merchandise and all that, but I will if you make me. And, more importantly than that, I want you to know that any escape attempts will be punished by killing a member of your family, so I must strongly discourage you from doing so, if you wish them to remain in their current states of health. Understood?"

Murmurs of "Yes, Mr. Satori," sounded from around the table although despite this outward display of obedience each genius was attempting to figure out how to escape without allowing him to get to any of their family members.

"Now let's get on to your newest assignments, shall we?" He asked settling down for what would entail a fairly long discussion of business.

**A/N Review! Update next Saturday! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N Hello, people. Sorry for the delay. I have returned from vacation now so all updates should return to their previously scheduled schedule. **

**Thanks to All Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To MCR-1993 for her review!**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot.**

"Excuse me, Mrs. Hardy, but there is an urgent phone call for you in the front office." Mrs. Howard, a secretary at Bayport Elementary School, said entering Callie's class of second graders.

"Thank you." Callie said politely while her mind began to race wondering if something had happened to one of her family members, more specifically if something had happened to Frank. "Could you possibly watch my class for me for a few moments? It's silent reading time right now so they shouldn't be any trouble." The last part was a warning for her students not to act up just because she left the room.

"Of course," Mrs. Howard replied waving the teacher out of the room.

Callie hastened down the hallway towards the front office, when she entered; she was directed to the phone on Mrs. Howard's desk. "Callie Hardy speaking." She said upon taking the phone off hold.

"Callie? It's Fenton, something's happened."

"What?" The blonde asked anxiously tightening her grip on the phone as she waited for him to speak.

"Frank and Charlie were abducted from Charlie's office yesterday, I am sorry I didn't call you sooner but Joe was injured in the attempt-"

"Is Joe okay?" Callie managed to voice her concern for her brother-in-law even as she panicked about whether her husband was alright.

"He's fine, he had a mild concussion he was released from the hospital earlier this morning." Fenton assured her.

"I'm coming there." Callie said firmly.

"It's really not necessary," Fenton began.

"I am coming to California, you can expect me later this evening." Callie repeated.

"Alright," Fenton conceded to his daughter-in-law. "Call me with your flight information." He added.

"Will do. Bye." Callie said before ending the call, and heading towards the principal's office to explain to her boss her need to leave immediately, as well as taking vacation time pending the safe return of her husband.

-Story Break-

Upon walking into the FBI office that morning, Don was accosted by his team member Colby Granger and informed that Assistant Director Merrick wanted to see Don in his office immediately. Don had a feeling that this was not going to be a conversation he would like. He was right of course.

"Sit down, Agent." Merrick said by way of greeting when Don entered his office.

"Yes, sir." Don said sitting down in the chair opposite Merrick's.

"We need to have a discussion about your continued involvement in the genius disappearance cases." Merrick explained.

Don had a really good idea where this was going, and he would be damned if he'd be pulled off the case. His little brother and cousin were missing, and if the assistant director thought he could make Don give up the case he was a few books short of a library. Apparently, Merrick thought exactly that.

"Your continued involvement with this case represents a significant conflict of interest, with your brother and cousin the latest in the disappearances you cannot be allowed to investigate further." Merrick said firmly.

"Technically, there's no proof that these cases are linked." Don pointed out. "And in regards to the other disappearances I have no conflict."

Merrick favored the SAC with a withering look. "You and I both know that they are. And, besides that, the CalSci security tapes managed to get some footage of the van that Dr. Eppes and Dr. Hardy were abducted in, it matches the description of the van in the other California abduction, which is evidence in favor of them being linked, therefore, you are off the case. Agent Reeves will take over." He said decisively. "You will return to working on the money laundering case that your team had been assigned to prior to this." He continued. "You are dismissed."

Don rose to stand angry at being pulled off the case, but knowing that there was nothing he could do about it. "Yes sir."

"Oh, and agent?"

"Yes?"

"I hope you know that the bureau is very concerned about your brother and cousin's abductions. Especially Dr. Eppes' we all view him as one of our own. Which is why I am taking you off this case, we don't want to risk the evidence getting thrown out and letting the perp walk."

"I understand." Don said, and he did, he really did, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.

-Story Break-

"I've been pulled off the case." Don announced upon walking into his father's-well actually Charlie's-house. His cousin was seated on the living room couch ostensibly resting, while Alan was fussing over him presumably to take his mind off the fact that his own son and other nephew were missing. Fenton meanwhile had been on the phone in the other room but came in upon hearing Don's pronouncement.

"I expected that to be the case." Fenton said grimly.

"What about you? Are you still on the case?" Don asked.

"Technically, I am a consultant for the New Hampshire office, not the California office, so while the two offices may be collaborating the cases are separate. Also, as a private investigator, I can still look into the disappearance either way even if they decide to kick me off at the FBI, so I'm assuming they're allowing me to stay on because they would rather be able to supervise me than have me go off and investigate as I choose." His uncle replied.

"I however am an FBI agent placing me completely under the control of my superiors." Don said bitterly. "Of course...I could always offer suggestion to _you_ which you can pass on." He continued innocently.

"Whatever it takes to find them safely." Fenton replied.

**A/N Review, update next Saturday!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Hello, everyone, I apologize for the delay. I would write more but my internet has a breakdown literally ever five minutes and stops working. So, I need to get this posted ASAP.**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To happy reading for her review.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Callie Hardy arrived in California at eight o'clock that evening; she was not however alone she came accompanied by her mother-in-law, Laura Hardy, who upon hearing of Callie's plans immediately decided to join her. Fenton met them at the airport not having known that his wife was coming along as well, though he wasn't surprised to see her.

The ride to Alan's house was mostly filled with questions regarding their progress on the case and whether they had any hints as to Frank and Charlie's whereabouts. Callie was vowing that she would never allow her husband out of her sight again.

They arrived at the house and were immediately ushered in and offered refreshments by Alan which they politely refused. Callie could tell that her uncle-in-law if such a thing existed was stricken with worry about his son. While Laura spoke with Alan and Fenton she made her way into the living room to find her brother-in-law propped up with pillows sitting on the couch case files spread out around him.

He looked up immediately when she entered. "Callie! I'm sorry-"

"For what?" she demanded. "It's not your fault that Frank got kidnapped...again." His sister-in-law continued in an exasperated tone.

Joe opened his mouth to argue but was silenced by her glare. Callie really was quite as stubborn as him if not more so.

"Vanessa wanted to come as well, but she couldn't get her boss to give her time off with them being in the middle of such a major step in the development process." She continued. "She said she wants you to call her right away."

"Uh, alright." Joe replied.

"Now, have you found anything else out about what happened to Frank?" Callie asked briskly.

"Well, they have a video of what happened, apparently I set my phone to record it, and I don't remember anything, Cal." Joe whispered.

"Nothing?" She asked. "I heard you had gotten hit on the head, but to not remember anything..."

"I don't know what happened. I don't remember anything prior to waking up in the hospital." Joe asserted.

"You've had a lot of head injuries and this has never happened before has it?"

"No, it hasn't." Joe confirmed. "Maybe the memories will come back, but at least I had the foresight to set my phone to record what happened so they have some clues. I don't think they've made much progress so far, but they know what the kidnappers look like, vaguely, they have tech people trying to clear up the video."

"We will find them." Callie said confidently.

-Story Break-

Frank and Charlie, meanwhile, were not wholly confident of being found as they sat in the boardroom and listened to Satori talk.

"Let us begin with an assignment for you, Dr. Eppes, shall we?" Satori asked rhetorically. "This will actually be a joint project which you will work on together with Dr. Vander."

At this, Charlie glanced to his immediate left where Emily Vander was seated. She wore a troubled expression which gave the mathematician a strong notion that he would not enjoy his assignment.

"An associate of mine is interested in acquiring funding…from a bank." Satori began. "It will be the job of the two of you to crack through the bank's encryptions and transfer funds from the bank into a secure Swiss bank account."

"What if we refuse?" Charlie inquired.

"Well, I can assure you that you will not like the consequences." Satori said looking at the professor with coldly glittering, dark eyes. "I could dispose of your precious older brother, or your father, I could lock you in your room without food until you agree to do the task. I won't kill you of course, at least for now, but if you prove too stubborn to be convinced than I shall have to put a stop to your potential as a witness, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course." Charlie muttered sarcastically, but Satori either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Yes, sir." Emily echoed.

"Excellent the two of you will meet the client tomorrow afternoon, to discuss a plan of action and begin work." Satori said with a smile which was perhaps the creepiest thing he had done so far. "Let's continue onward, Miss Weston, you're next."

"Yes, sir?" The musical prodigy asked.

"Your assignment this week isn't much, you will be serving as the entertainment at a party held by one of my associates, and he will meet with you tomorrow to discuss the musical arrangements."

"Alright." She agreed.

It became clear that depending on what field you specialized in you could luck out considerably in terms of assignments, those like Charlie and Emily who had advanced hacking capabilities would receive clearly illegal jobs that went against their moral values, whereas others such as Kathryn were simply used as a way for Satori to earn money by renting out their skills.

"Mrs. Malone, you're next." Satori said fixing his eyes on the artist. "You can, I believe, mimic most paintings, correct?"

The artistic prodigy clearly understood where he was taking this and seemed to be disgusted with it. "Yes." She replied tersely.

"Just as I told my client, therefore you will be working with him probably for several weeks to make copies of famous paintings, you will need to make them convincing of course, that goes without saying."

"I'll try." Janet agreed.

"Try hard." Satori warned. "I don't tolerate failure. And, now on to you, Dr. Nemi, our resident strategist."

"Yes?" The newest captive after Frank and Charlie asked.

"You will be assisting some clients of mine in figuring out the best way to sneak on to a military base to acquire some needed information."

"I will not." Benjamin replied with a glare.

"I truly think that you will, Dr. Nemi." Satori said coldly.

The strategist seemed to consider this for several moments, before nodding his head. Satori seemed satisfied but Frank noticed that the strategist had a satisfied gleam in his eyes that boded ill for Satori and his client.

"Now on to you, Mr. Fanfold, your job will also be relatively simple this week, you simply will be instructing the children of one of my associates in the game of chess."

Jeremy absently nodded his head in reply thankful that his talents lay in chess.

"Dr. Harrington, you will be free for the time, as your project will be dependent on the success of Dr. Nemi's, once the client succeeds in getting the documents he requires he will need them to be decoded, the code, we have it on good authority is linguistically based, you will need to decode it."

"Fine." Dr. Harrington replied tersely clearly hoping that the client would not manage to obtain eh documents.

"And that just leaves you, Dr. Hardy."

Frank met Satori's gaze, leveling stare for stare.

"I suppose it does." The private investigator remarked mildly.

"You will be completing an important task for me; however I am unable to tell you more than that at this point. I will provide you with further details tomorrow." Satori informed Frank. "You are all dismissed back to your rooms for the remainder of the evening."

**A/N Review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N This is now the second story to be updated on my new pink laptop. :D**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To sparklyshimmer2010 for her review.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot. ;)**

At six forty-five a.m. Frank Hardy was woken up by loud knocking on the door. He awoke with a start, and stared at the door in shock, he had to say that of all the times he had been kidnapped, he had never once had his kidnapper knock on the door.

He stumbled out of bed and opened the door to find the man who had introduced himself as Mr. Jones the night before standing outside. "Get dressed, breakfast in fifteen minutes. When you're ready wait outside your door, I will be back to escort you at seven a.m. precisely. Do not be late." He ordered curtly before shutting Frank's door and leaving the eldest Hardy brother staring at it in shock.

This was certainly the strangest kidnapping he had ever experienced. He hurriedly got ready and headed into the hallway, his cousin was already outside looking rather disheveled. Charlie sent him a puzzled look clearly wondering what was going on.

They were about to find out, as Mr. Jones returned and led the cousins and the other assorted geniuses down two flights of stairs and three hallways to pause outside the second door on the right hand side. "You have one hour." He informed them opening the door to a cafeteria like room and gesturing for them all to enter. They filed inside and the door was shut and locked behind them.

A buffet was set up with various breakfast foods, and those captives who had been their longer immediately headed over to it. Frank and Charlie shrugged at each other but followed the others. Once they had their food Frank and Charlie sat down next to each other and the long table provided for everyone.

Janet Malone slid onto the end of the bench across from Frank, while Kathryn Weston sat next to her. Benjamin sat on Charlie's other side, and Jeremy seated himself across from the strategist, Emily seated herself next to Jeremy, while Andrew took the available seat on Benjamin's other side.

"Hi, I'm Janet; I know he introduced everyone last night, but…" The artist trailed off apparently unable to word exactly what specifically made being introduced by one's kidnapper unsatisfactory.

"I know what you mean." Frank agreed. "I'm Frank, this is my cousin Charlie."

"Will he be joining us?" Charlie asked.

"No," Kathryn joined in. "We eat breakfast as a group, lunch is delivered to our rooms while we 'work,' and then dinner is a formal affair with Satori." She explained.

"We need to get out of here." Benjamin announced grimly.

"Don't we know it?" Jeremy replied. "But there is no easy escape from here, we're locked up almost all the time, and when we're not there are guards everywhere. "

"Well I refuse to help break on to a military base and steal government secrets, so we're going to need to make it happen." Benjamin replied.

"Let's table this for now," Andrew Harrington, the linguistics professor suggested. "You three," He nodded at Frank, Charlie, and Benjamin. "Are new here, therefore you can tell us whether or not the police have figured out anything. I'm sure you watch the news, have they figured out that all these disappearances are linked?"

"We can do you one better." Charlie replied. "My cousin and I were both consulting with the FBI on the case."

"Charlie's brother is a FBI agent at the Los Angeles office, and Charlie often consults on cases for him." Frank explained.

"And Frank is a private investigator together with his father and brother, their agency was hired to consult for the New Hampshire office on your disappearance," Charlie said with a nod at Jeremy.

"Does that mean they've figured out that the crimes are linked?" Emily asked.

"They were fairly certain of it before we were taken," Frank responded.

"Now that we've gone missing, I'm sure that they will be certain of it." Charlie added.

"They have no leads do they?" Kathryn asked.

"Beyond a few details about black vans and SUVs not really," Frank admitted. "But, my brother witnessed Charlie and I getting taken."

"And they let him live?" Benjamin asked incredulously.

"They actually injected him with a drug to make him forget everything that happened." Charlie confessed.

"So, basically it's hopeless," Andrew surmised.

"They will find us," Charlie said fiercely. "Don is a great agent, and I know that he won't rest until we're found."

"And, in the meantime we can't just sit back on our heels and wait to be rescued." Frank added. "We need to at the very least find a way to get a message out."

"If he catches us he will take it out on our family." Janet pointed out.

"Then we better not get caught." Frank replied. "It's not like we really have many options." He added logically.

"Easier said than done." Emily murmured.

"As are most things worth doing." Kathryn countered.

-Story Break-

Don found himself sitting in a conference room at the L.A. FBI office surrounded by files on a suspected money laundering case. It was hard to concentrate on the white collar case when down the hall he knew that the other agents were attempting to locate his missing brother and cousin.

Fortunately, he had his uncle and team who had agreed to report to him on how the case was progressing off the record, otherwise he would be going absolutely insane with worry. As it was he had slept barely four hours last night and was awake only through willpower and caffeine.

His uncle had made his cousin stay with Alan and rest for at least the day, as he had just been released from the hospital and no one considered him well enough to be working on the case. Joe had protested vehemently but been cowed into submission by his mother and sister-in-law.

Don resisted the urge to groan aloud as he surveyed the stacks of paperwork. It was shaping up to be a long and worry filled day.

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	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Hello, everyone, mucho apologies for the lateness of this update. :)**

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: To sparklyshimmer2010 for her amazing review. :D**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot.**

"Hello, everyone, I'm Special Agent Megan Reeves," The profiler began once all the agents involved in the 'missing geniuses' case had piled into the conference room and taken their seats. "Some of you may have noticed that Special Agent Eppes is not with us today, and I'm sure you understand why." She continued. "I will be lead agent on this case in his place from this point onward. That being said we have had three new disappearances as you know: Dr. Benjamin Nemi, Dr. Frank Hardy, and Dr. Charles Eppes." As she spoke she indicated to the pictures of each individual that had been posted on the wall. "At this point we can be certain that these crimes are connected, thankfully we do have a new lead, Agent Granger, report."

Colby stood up from his seat at the conference table at her command. "Joe Hardy, who you all met several days ago as a consultant on this case for the New Hampshire office, was with his brother and cousin when they were abducted."

At this point various whisperings broke out as the agents seemed excited at the possibility of finally having a concrete lead.

"Unfortunately, Joe is unable to remember anything that occurred." Disappointed murmurs swept through the room. "However," Colby continued in a loud voice breaking through the other talking. "Joe had the foresight to record the abduction on his camera, the tech guys have managed to clean it up and from that tape we have gleaned the following two photos." Colby tacked up the enhanced images of the two men who had taken Charlie and Frank on the wall.

"I trust you've run their faces through facial recognition software?" Agent Nichols, the lead agent from the New Hampshire office, inquired.

"Of course," Colby agreed. "We got hits on both men. The first gentleman, the shorter one, is a Matt Brennan, wanted for robbery, assault, and attempted murder. He went off the radar a year ago, completely disappeared as though into thin air, it was theorized that he left the country. The second one, is a Robert Flynn, he did time for kidnapping, and was wanted on charges of assault and grand theft auto, before he abruptly disappeared similar to Brennan."

"Based off research into their histories," David began. "Neither of them seems to be the criminal mastermind type, most of their previous crimes seemed to have been ordered by a third party but the authorities could never pin anything down. That, in addition to the fact that on Joe's video they make a phone call to an unknown person we can be fairly certain that neither of them are the architect behind these kidnappings."

"In addition, CalSci security cameras picked up this image of Charlie and Frank getting into the back of a black SUV." Megan broke in, tacking up the image of the SUV. "We scanned the plate number and found the car to have been reported stolen three weeks ago."

"They're getting sloppy." Agent Garrison, the lead agent from Florida noted with no small amount of glee.

"It would appear so." Megan agreed. "We need to capitalize on that and attempt to find them before they have time to hide their tracks."

"What is our next move?" Agent Jefferson from the Montana offices inquired.

"We hit the streets, take the pictures of Brennan and Flynn and try to find someone who has seen them; in addition we fax the pictures to your home offices, and get people to take the pictures to shoe to any potential witnesses to the various disappearances." Megan replied. "We will also soon be joined by another team from the D.C. offices, who were called onto the scene when Benjamin Nemi disappeared; they are still conducting preliminary investigations such as taking witness accounts and such, when they finish with that they will fly here, and join in our search. We have reason to believe that because three of the kidnapped individuals have been taken from California that the kidnappers' base of operations is either in this state or else a bordering one. Let's get started then. Meet back here at one this afternoon to discuss findings." She concluded grimly.

-Story Break-

Charlie and Emily had been left in a conference room together to discuss possible approaches for the bank hacking scheme. When it came time to use the computers to actually do the task they would be heavily supervised in order to make sure they didn't have time to get a message out.

"I have a plan." Charlie announced after they had sat in silence for at least ten minutes.

"Tell me it's not a plan for how to successfully hack the bank." Emily requested.

"Well, sort of." Charlie admitted. "We can hide a trace, so that when they go to investigate the missing funds it will link back to our computer, which will hopefully let them find us."

Emily looked thoughtful. "The only question is how we manage to pull that off without them knowing what we're doing."

"How much do they know about hacking?" Charlie asked her.

"Not much, but enough." Emily replied.

"Well, we will just have to disguise the coding for the trace as best we can, and hope they don't notice, there's not really anything else that we can do." The mathematician answered grimly. "They think that they have us trapped, with their threats against our family, but that's not strictly true, we can just inform them that if they harm our family members we will definitely refuse to do any more work of any kind for them, and at that point they will either harm us to let the message sink in or else let it go. But they probably won't hurt us too badly anyway, because they need us to make their money."

The computer specialist looked slightly nervous, but resolved. "Let's do this." She declared.

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	16. Chapter 16

**A/N Hello, everyone, immense apologies for the lateness of this update, things have been somewhat crazy lately. **

**Thanks to all Reviewers!**

**Dedication: to happy reading for their awesome review. :D**

Don was having a hard time focusing on his assigned task of investigating the money laundering associated with Wunderkind Incorporated, when he knew that down the hall several teams of agents were working on finding Charlie and Frank. Money laundering seemed insignificant next to that.

He didn't have much to go on so far, beyond an alert from a bank that the companies transactions appeared somewhat suspicious, not as a result of extremely large cash deposits, but actually because the money deposits were too perfect.

Wunderkind was reputed to be a consulting firm that provided advice to individuals and small businesses making it difficult to actually nail down where the money was coming from and raising suspicions that the organization was a front company for illegal dealings of some sort.

Normally, Don could have found it interesting attempting to unravel it all, but right now he just found it to be a waste of time and effort when he could be helping to locate his brother and cousin as well as all the other missing geniuses.

He was certain he had never been more frustrated in his entire life.

-Story Break-

If Don thought he was frustrated he had nothing on Joe who was stuck back at the Craftsman being forced to take it easy while his mind swam with horrific scenarios of what his brother and cousin were possibly going through.

It didn't help any that he had Callie, Laura and Alan as company, although all three attempted to disguise their worry from Joe and each other it was clear that they were frantic with worry. Callie spent most of the day with Joe in the living room talking about everything except her missing husband.

Laura and Alan retreated to the kitchen early that morning and neither Joe nor Callie had seen much of them since then.

Joe really hoped he would be allowed back on the case, his father had yet to be removed but he wasn't sure whether he would be allowed to remain on it, considering that he was ostensibly a witness to two of the abductions, despite remembering nothing.

He supposed that he would simply have to wait and see. Joe was never good at waiting.

-Story Break-

Mr. Jones had arrived in Frank's room and escorted him to a conference room several minutes ago. The other captive geniuses had already been hard at work on their respective projects for at least two or three hours at that point.

Frank had been informed that Satori would be joining him shortly to explain the details of his assignment to him.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Hardy," Satori greeted strolling briskly into the room. "I'm sure you are wondering what project you will be working on, and I am happy to inform you that it is an extremely interesting one."

Frank refrained from informing his captor that he was really not at all eager to begin working on his assignment and could really care less about pleasing Satori's client. He didn't think that the other man would take kindly to such a response.

"I'm sure you know that it is a necessity for many organizations to pass on information in a coded for so that outside parties cannot crack the code, you may be aware that many people use numerical based encryptions to accomplish this, the problem with such methods being that if the key is discovered the entire message is compromised." Satori continued.

"Isn't that the problem with any coded message?" Frank pointed out. "I don't really see how I can help you with this."

"That is where you are wrong, Dr. Hardy," Satori replied amicably. "Government officials are always on the lookout for numerically encrypted messages, employing people such as your cousin to find the pattern and crack the code, but they seldom check for literature based codes."

Frank refrained from pointing out that it was probably because no one really used codes based on literature. Instead he simply said: "Literature based codes?"

"My client would like you to devise him a code based an obscure work of ancient literature of your choice, it can be relatively simple, such as using the third letter of every word or whatever else you can think up." Satori explained.

"For what purpose am I developing this code?" Frank asked warily.

"Do not look so afraid, Dr. Hardy, it is only to provide information for arms dealers on shipment dates and the like, nothing so very bad."

The private detective had held the idea that he and Satori had very different conceptions of what constituted very bad, it had now been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt. In Frank's opinion helping dangerous people smuggle illegal weapons into the country was very bad, indeed.

"I assume that you will need to consult different works to devise an effective code," Satori continued onward. "Therefore, if you could please be so good as to follow me? I have something that I believe could be of service."

In response to that cryptic remark, Frank rose from his seat at the conference table and followed his kidnapper up a flight of stairs and down three hallways until they stopped outside a set of double doors. Satori removed a key from his pocket and opened the doors to reveal an immense library filled with shelves upon shelves of books.

Normally, he would have been excited by the prospect of so many works of literature instead he was mostly worried about his assigned task. He really hoped that one of the others would come up with a way to get them out of here soon, before they were forced to make any more contributions to Satori or his 'associates.'

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